


It Came without Ribbons

by missmichellebelle



Category: Glee
Genre: Christmas, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Wrapping, Wrapping Paper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-13
Updated: 2012-12-13
Packaged: 2017-12-20 11:35:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/886795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmichellebelle/pseuds/missmichellebelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The only thing Blaine likes about wrapping presents is picking out the paper, but, after that, he’s hopeless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Came without Ribbons

Blaine tries to warn Kurt—he really,  _really_  does, but Kurt rolls his eyes and insists that Blaine is exaggerating.

"You wrap my gifts, and they don’t look bad," Kurt says, and Blaine feels too guilty to admit that he’d either had them professionally wrapped or that 3/4 of the job had been done by his  _mom_. The only thing Blaine likes about wrapping presents is picking out the paper, but, after that, he’s hopeless.

It’s weird, really, because Blaine loves crafts—another reason why Kurt probably doesn’t believe Blaine when he says he really,  _really_  sucks at wrapping presents. Blaine isn’t sure why it goes wrong, but it always starts when he cuts the paper. There’s always too much, or too little. Then, when the actual wrapping is done, the present slides around too much and one side ends up with way more paper than the other.

Don’t even get him started on ribbons.

But Kurt doesn’t yield, and is excited that he’ll be able to go home for the holidays with a suitcase full of wrapped presents. Blaine finds that his excitement comes from the way Kurt writes, “From Kurt & Blaine" on each Christmas tag.

Well, that, and Kurt lets him pick the paper (from preselected paper, but still).

The first present Kurt hands to Blaine is a garment box, already artfully put together on the inside and sealed shut, for Carole. Blaine’s hand hovers with indecision over the wrapping paper, and then he’s drawn into watching as Kurt wraps. It’s a square box, and Blaine can’t remember what’s in it or who it’s for, but he’s more preoccupied with watching Kurt’s hands move than he is with the actual gift.

He cuts the perfect amount of paper, and every single one of his folds is neat and sharp. There aren’t any weird creases, the box doesn’t slide around in the paper, and somehow the folds on the side look  _identical_. Blaine knows he won’t be able to wrap a single present that can even get close to the measure of perfection Kurt just set.

"Blaine."

Blaine hadn’t realized he’d spaced out.

"You haven’t even started and I already finished my first one," Kurt teases, reaching for the white and blue ribbon that compliments the foiled snowfake paper. Blaine flashes a sheepish smile, and then picks up the paper that’s covered in shimmery Christmas trees. There, fun part done.

Now, the insanely hard part.

He makes sure that Kurt isn’t paying attention, because this whole pursuit is embarrassing enough, before he lays out the roll. That should be enough paper, right…? Blaine bites his lip and nearly closes his eyes when he makes the first snip, because after that, there’s no going back. The commitment is made. He has his paper and now he needs to make it work.

It’s immediately apparent that there is too much paper. That’s okay, Blaine can just… Fold it, and there, that’s fine. It’ll be fine. Once he folds it.

Oh god, now he has to fold it.

Blaine presses his lips together in concentration, sticking her first piece of tape and then praying to some sort of Christmas present deity that the box doesn’t slide.

It does.

There’s still too much paper on the edges, and they end up folding so far that they go to the underside of the present. Blaine knows it looks horrid before he even turns it over.

"Wow."

Blaine winces and looks up at Kurt, who’s biting his lip to keep in his smile (or, most likely, his laughter).

"I told you I suck at this," Blaine whines, rubbing at his face in defeat, and then Kurt really does laugh.

"I don’t think anyone ever taught you  _how_  to wrap. I’m kind of scared what would happen if I gave you something cylindrical to wrap."

"…don’t even say things like that, that sounds like a nightmare."

Kurt laughs again, scooting over to Blaine and taking the present.

"If I’m going to marry you one day, Blaine Anderson, you need to know how to wrap a present. So, it’s my job to teach you," Kurt smiles at him, but Blaine is too distracted by the word  _marry_  to even be paying much attention.  _Marry_. More Christmas tags with both of their names on them. Christmas cards mailed to and from the Hummel-Anderson Family. The Anderson-Hummel Family? They haven’t had the hyphenated-last-name talk yet.

"Blaine?"

Blaine blinks the thoughts away, only to notice that Carole’s present has been stripped of its (ridiculously ugly) wrap job, and that Kurt has pulled out another roll of paper. The  _candy cane stripe_  paper.

"That’s my favorite," Blaine says, happily, which is half true. It’s his favorite one _there_ —his real favorite one is the one covered in cute little snowmen wearing bow ties, but those are for presents that are just from Blaine.

"I know. that’s why I picked it." Kurt rolls it out, and Blaine is ready to watch Kurt work his present-wrapping-magic, except he doesn’t. “We use the box to measure out how much paper we need. Like this." Kurt lines the box up with an edge, and then carefully turns it until each side has touched the paper. “That’s how you know how big to make it."

Oh. That… Makes a lot of sense. Kurt hands Blaine the scissors, and he doesn’t feel nearly so nervous about cutting it.

"It’s a garment box, so it has short sides. The paper is too long, so we’ll trim it again." Kurt picks up the box and uses it to measure out the paper again. When Kurt nods, Blaine cuts again.

"Now, center the box on the paper—just like that, good, and fold one side over and tape it to the box."

Ah, so  _that’s_  how he stops the box from moving. It all seems so simple, now. Kurt walks him through each fold, and, while they aren’t as sharp and pretty and perfect as Kurt’s, they aren’t ugly or lopsided or bumpy, either. They do the ribbon together, and Blaine watches as Kurt slides it over the blade of the scissors and curls each strand into flawless ringlets. He tries to teach Blaine, but each curl comes out too big and loose, no matter how hard he tries.

"It takes practice," Kurt says, curling another strand of ribbon flawlessly. “But how about I stick to the bows and you stick to the wrapping."

Blaine still wraps one present in the time it takes Kurt to wrap three, and he still uses too much paper sometimes. Kurt intervenes when things get too bad, showing Blaine’s hands how to press the paper the right way and then laughing when Blaine tries to steal a kiss.

"So am I still marriage material?" Blaine asks, as he starts on another gift. There’s the sharp noise of ribbon being curled, and he looks up to meet Kurt’s eyes over the shimmery gold bow he’s making.

"Well, I always thought my husband would be able to curl ribbon, but I guess I can’t have everything," Kurt teases, and then half-yelps and half-laughs as Blaine chucks a balled up piece of wrapping paper at him.


End file.
